WHILE YOU WERE OUT by John M. Floyd

Retired schoolteacher Frances Valentine appeared in the hallway just as one of her former students, 25-year-old Trish Morgan, was lugging a suitcase toward her second-floor apartment. Trish looked up, door key in hand. “Ms. Valentine,” she said. “What brings you here?”

“Mind if I come in?” Fran asked.

Trish’s living room was time-worn but cozy. Couch, armchair, TV, framed pictures on one wall and a huge, ancient clock on another. It was almost noon. She shut the door, parked her suitcase, and turned to face her visitor. “I’m really beat. Will this take long?”

“Only a minute.” Fran took a seat on the couch. “I happened to see you arrive, and–well, I have some questions.”

“For me? I’ve been out of town for five weeks.”

“Where to?”

“My mother’s house, in Dallas.”

“A scheduled visit?”

Trish frowned. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because of when you left. It was the same day Buzz Kindall robbed Dolan’s Hardware.”

Trish swallowed. Behind her on the wall, an old pendulum-style clock chimed the hour. Outside the window, oak leaves fluttered in the wind.

“Did they catch him?” she asked.

“So you’ve heard about the robbery,” Fran said.

“I couldn’t believe it. My cousin Jan called me the other day.”

“Your cousin’s not the only one.” Fran opened her purse and read from a slip of paper. “Phone company records show Buzz called you three times, the week before it happened.”

Trish shrugged. “So? Buzz Kindall’s dated everybody in town, Ms. Valentine. He probably called a dozen young ladies that week.”

“Only you, actually.”

“So what is this? You think I can help find him?”

“I thought you might. Buzz only stole two hundred dollars, and it’s been more than a month now. Everybody’s stopped looking for him.”

Fran nodded, then studied the room a moment. “Anybody stop in to take care of the place while you were gone?”

“No. I have no pets to feed, no plants to water, no housekeeper.”

“How about boyfriends?”

“What?”

Fran stared at her. “This apartment’s a block from the crime scene, Trish, and two doors down from the sheriff’s office. Nobody would think to look for him this close by–especially with you gone.”

Trish’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I didn’t think of it myself, until now. But it’s perfect. All your neighbors are elderly–they probably wouldn’t hear an occasional footstep or flushing toilet from your apartment. And with enough canned goods and your lights on a timer, Buzz could hole up here until the robbery was old news. That’s what he called you about, wasn’t it?”

Buzz gulped; his face fell. “You speed-dialed her, didn’t you. When you reached into your purse for the phone records…”

Trish was in tears now. “Let him go, Ms. Valentine. It was only two hundred dollars–”

“He broke the law, Trish. Both of you did.”

Buzz said dully, “If you knew–why didn’t you make the call earlier?”

“I didn’t know, for sure,” Fran said. “All I knew was that the apartment was occupied.”

“But how’d you know that?”

As he spoke, the wall clock chimed again: twelve-fifteen. All three of them turned to look at it.

Trish closed her eyes. “The clock,” she said dully.

Fran nodded. “In a month’s time, if someone hadn’t wound it, it would have run down and stopped.”

Trish’s shoulders sagged. Buzz looked blank.

“What a way to get caught,” he murmured.

“Look at it this way,” Fran said. “It was just a matter of time.”

John M. Floyd’s short fiction has appeared in AHMM, EQMM, Strand Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, The Best American Mystery Stories, and many other publications. John is also a three-time Derringer Award winner and an Edgar nominee. His seventh book, The Barrens, is scheduled for summer 2018.

Keep up with all the latest!

BJ Bourg, Owner/Editor

BJ Bourg has worked in law enforcement for over 25 years, serving as a patrol cop, detective, SWAT operator, sniper leader, and chief investigator for a district attorney's office. In addition to being a firearms instructor and defensive tactics instructor, he's a former professional boxer and a lifelong martial artist. He's the author of JAMES 516, THE SEVENTH TAKING, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, and HOLLOW CRIB. His short stories and articles have appeared in places such as Woman's World, Boys' Life, Writer's Digest, and Law and Order. He lives in southeast Louisiana with his wife and children.

Brandon Bourg, Editor

Brandon Bourg is a published author, writing both genre and literary short fiction. He is currently in his final year of pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in English with a concentration in creative writing. He has taken courses on these subjects at institutions such as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Southeastern Louisiana University, Queen's University of Belfast, Trinity College, and the University of Edinburgh. He has also spent two years as a "pick-up man" for a funeral home, learning hands-on how death affects human beings. When not working or studying, Brandon trains as an amateur boxer and no-gi grappler with formal training from 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu San Diego.

BJ’s Books

The Amazon best-selling crime trilogy that follows Louisiana Chief of Police Clint Wolf as he battles alligators, assassins, a murderous archer, and cop killers in his fight for justice.

Fear is the fresh catch of the day and it's served ice cold for one Louisiana sheriff whose men are targeted by a killer sniper.

Abraham will stop at nothing to uncover the mystery behind Joy’s disappearance, but will he get himself and his friends killed in the process?

Sign up to FBM!

Email address:

Search for:

Disclaimer

Authors are responsible for the content of their stories and BJ Bourg's Flash Bang Mysteries, its editors, creators, or affiliates accept no liability whatsoever for misuse of any kind.